An act to add Section 25401.8 to the Public Resources Code, and to amend Section 10608.34 of the Water Code, relating to water conservation.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 3206, as amended, Friedman.
Water conservation: water meters: accuracy and performance standards.

(1) Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to establish design and construction standards and energy and water conservation design standards that increase efficiency in the use of energy and water for new residential and new nonresidential buildings to reduce the wasteful, uneconomic, inefficient, or unnecessary consumption of energy. Existing law requires the commission to establish minimum levels of operating efficiency to promote the use of energy and water efficient appliances, including landscape irrigation equipment.

This bill would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2020, to the extent that funding is available, to adopt regulations setting standards for the accuracy of water meters, as described, that, on or after the effective date of those
regulations, are installed by a water purveyor or manufactured and sold or offered for sale in the state. The bill would include an exception for a water meter that, as of the effective date of the regulations, a water purveyor possesses, or has entered into a contract to purchase, and has not yet installed. The bill would allow a water purveyor to maintain water meters that are installed as of the effective date of the regulations, or pursuant to that exception, until the end of their useful service, as determined by the water purveyor.

(2) Existing law requires the state to achieve a 20% reduction in urban per capita water use in California by December 31, 2020, and requires the state to make incremental progress towards this goal by reducing per capita water use by at least 10% on or before December 31, 2015. Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to adopt and update rules for urban retail water suppliers to conduct
standardized water loss audits and requires suppliers to submit those water loss audits to the department. department on or before October 1 of each year. Existing law requires the State Water Resources Control Board, no later than July 1, 2020, to adopt rules requiring urban retail water suppliers to meet performance standards for the volume of water losses.

The Water Measurement Law requires every water purveyor to require, as a condition of new water service, the installation of a water meter to measure water service. The law also requires urban water suppliers to install water meters on specified service connections, and to charge water users based on the actual volume of deliveries as measured by those water meters.

This bill
would require suppliers to submit water loss audits to the Department of Water Resources on or before November 1 of each year. The bill
would require the State Water Resources Control Board, in adopting the rules for urban retail water supplier performance standards, to also adopt regulations to require each urban water supplier to sample and test its customer service meters to produce a statistically sound estimate of the accuracy of the urban water supplier’s meter fleet. The bill would also make various nonsubstantive changes.

Digest Key

Vote:
MAJORITY
Appropriation:
NO
Fiscal Committee:
YES
Local Program:
NO

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 25401.8 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

25401.8.

(a) On or before January 1, 2022, to the extent that funding is available, the commission shall adopt regulations setting standards for the accuracy of water meters described in Article 3.5 (commencing with Section 525) of Chapter 8 of Division 1 of the Water Code that, on or after the effective date of those regulations, are installed by a water purveyor or manufactured and sold or offered for sale in the state. The regulations shall allow a water purveyor to do both of the following:

(1) Install a water meter that, as of the effective date of the regulations, the water purveyor possesses, or has entered into a contract to purchase, and has not yet
installed.

(2) Maintain all water meters installed as of the effective date of the regulations or pursuant to paragraph (1) until the end of their useful service, as determined by the water purveyor.

(b) In adopting regulations pursuant to subdivision (a), the commission may consider the fifth most recent edition of the American Water Works Association’s Water Meters—Selection, Installation, Testing and Maintenance, Manual M6.

(c) Paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of, and paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of, Section 25402 shall not apply to the regulations adopted
under this section.

SEC. 2.

Section 10608.34 of the Water Code is amended to read:

10608.34.

(a) (1) On or before January 1, 2017, the department shall adopt rules for all of the following:

(A) The conduct of standardized water loss audits by urban retail water suppliers in accordance with the method adopted by the American Water Works Association in the third edition of Water Audits and Loss Control Programs, Manual M36 and in the Free Water Audit Software, version 5.0.

(B) The process for validating a water loss audit report prior to submitting the report to the department. For the purposes of this section, “validating” is a process whereby an urban retail water supplier uses a technical
expert to confirm the basis of all data entries in the urban retail water supplier’s water loss audit report and to appropriately characterize the quality of the reported data. The validation process shall follow the principles and terminology laid out by the American Water Works Association in the third edition of Water Audits and Loss Control Programs, Manual M36 and in the Free Water Audit Software, version 5.0. A validated water loss audit report shall include the name and technical qualifications of the person engaged for validation.

(C) The technical qualifications required of a person to engage in validation, as described in subparagraph (B).

(D) The certification requirements for a person selected by an urban retail water supplier to provide validation of its own water loss
audit report.

(E) The method of submitting a water loss audit report to the department.

(2) The department shall update rules adopted pursuant to paragraph (1) no later than six months after the release of subsequent editions of the American Water Works Association’s Water Audits and Loss Control Programs, Manual M36. Except as provided by the department, until the department adopts updated rules pursuant to this paragraph, an urban retail water supplier may rely upon a subsequent edition of the American Water Works Association’s Water Audits and Loss Control Programs, Manual M36 or the Free Water Audit Software.

(b) On or before October
November 1 of each year, each urban retail water supplier shall submit a completed and validated water loss audit report for the previous calendar year or the previous fiscal year as prescribed by the department pursuant to subdivision (a).

(c) Each water loss audit report submitted to the department shall be accompanied by information, in a form specified by the department, identifying steps taken in the preceding year to increase the validity of data entered into the final audit, reduce the volume of apparent losses, and reduce the volume of real losses.

(d) At least one of the following employees of an urban retail water supplier shall attest to each water loss audit report submitted to the department:

(1) The chief financial officer.

(2) The chief engineer.

(3) The general manager.

(e) The department shall deem incomplete and return to the urban retail water supplier any final water loss audit report found by the department to be incomplete, not validated, unattested, or incongruent with known characteristics of water system operations. A water supplier shall resubmit a completed water loss audit report within 90 days of an audit being returned by the department.

(f) The department shall post all validated water loss audit reports on its Internet Web site in a manner
that allows for comparisons across water suppliers. The department shall make the validated water loss audit reports available for public viewing in a timely manner after their receipt.

(h) (1) No earlier than January 1, 2019, and no later than July 1, 2020, the board shall adopt rules requiring urban retail water suppliers to meet performance standards for the volume of water losses.
In adopting these rules, the board shall employ full life-cycle cost accounting to evaluate the costs of meeting the performance
standards. The board may consider establishing a minimum allowable water loss threshold that, if reached and maintained by an urban water supplier, would exempt the urban water supplier from further water loss reduction requirements.

(2) In adopting the rules described in paragraph (1), the board shall also adopt regulations requiring the sampling and testing by each urban water supplier of its
customer service meters that, when followed, will produce a statistically sound estimate of the accuracy of the urban water supplier’s meter fleet. In adopting regulations pursuant to this paragraph, the board shall consider both of the following:

(A) The results of a survey of urban water suppliers, to be conducted by the board, on the methodologies they use to sample and test customer service meters.

(B) Industry standards of practice and manuals from the American Water Works Association.